Third in the First Division, through to the fourth round of the , things were looking good for Burnley in 1974, that was until we travelled to the Baseball Ground and came home with a big 5-1 defeat against Derby County.
A special train was due to take Burnley supporters to Derby and was still expected to run despite the chaos on the railways in various parts of the country. I think it did run, but we weren’t taking any chances and quickly made other arrangements to get there.
relaxed the rules on generators with them now granting permission to use them.
Burnley Football Club immediately contacted both Sheffield United and the Football League and received agreement for our game against the Blades to kick off at 7 p.m. under the floodlights.
“This has proved our wisdom in spending £30,000 on a generator,” said chairman Bob Lord. “Once we knew that we were allowed to use the generator we set about arranging an evening match. We are delighted it has been agreed and we’re most grateful to Sheffield United for their co-operation.
“The kick off time will enable season ticket holders not to lose money by missing the match. And, of course, all the people that are working during the day will be able to attend. We’re expecting a good crowd.”
Asked if this would become a regular occurrence for home games during the crisis, Lord said: “We’ll have to play that one by ear,” but he added: “I was disappointed by the Government’s previous decision to ban the use of generators at football grounds although we were prepared to go along with any order made by the Government in order to bring the current crisis to an end as soon as possible. We certainly weren’t going to agitate to have something done about it.”
The club also reported that it was hopeful that the new £250,000 Brunshaw Road stand would be opened for the West Ham game on 23rd February but this would be dependent on the weather. The first two hundred seats had been fitted at the cricket field end of the stand with Turf Moor soon set to have spectators on both sides of the ground for the first time in a number of years.
It had been a busy week in the treatment room at Turf Moor with all of Alan Stevenson, Peter Noble, Ray Hankin and Paul Fletcher nursing injuries sustained in the cup win at Grimsby. Hankin was the biggest doubt having been left with stud marks on his knee for which the Grimsby player received no punishment.
Thankfully, all four were passed fit to take on a Derby side who would not be able to include new £300,000 signing from Chelsea. Osgood was leaving Chelsea because of a series of disagreements with manager Dave Sexton over his lifestyle, the same lifestyle that limited his England career to just four games. He’d been dropped from the Chelsea team and placed on the transfer list.
Derby boss Dave Mackay confirmed his signing on the day before the game but had to then report in the following week that the deal was off and Osgood would not be joining them. He signed for Southampton two months later.
Without Osgood, the Derby team was too good for us on the day with the game played on a pitch that had hardly a blade of grass on it, best known as a mud bath. For the first time in a season that had brought so much credit, the Clarets found out what it was like to be on the end of a hammering. Derby turned on a five star performance and we just couldn’t live with them.
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